Robert Bobb lays out blunt litany of problems afflicting Detroit public schools

Robert Bobb

In in today’s Detroit Free Press, Robert Bobb lays out the good, the bad and the ugly when it comes to the present state of the Detroit Public Schools in a commentary that carries the not-particularly inspired headline, “Focus on students in response to Detroit schools emergency.”

As if there’s anyone saying we shouldn’t focus on students, but I digress…

Bobb, the district’s widely-praised emergency financial manager, has  been clamoring to wrest control over the district’s academics from the elected school board — and he’s been supported in that effort by the woman who appointed him, Gov. Jennifer Granholm, not to mention others including local opinion leaders.
In the commentary, Bobb cites the significant number of adults in  metro Detroit who’ve signed up to be reading tutors (the good part) including more than 3,300 volunteers pledging more than 400,000 hours to help give struggling students that most basic of basic learning skills.

In describing “an emergency that goes well beyond reading scores and shows symptoms in every major measure of academic performance and student achievement,” Bobb takes the reader through nine bullet-points that highlight the litany of slumping indicators of student performance he’s most concerned about — that would be the bad and/or ugly parts, take your pick.

Among those major measures Bobb cites are high rates of students held back from graduating to the next grade, abysmal graduation rates overall (especially for black males) and, of course, low standardized test scores, especially the now-infamous National Assessment of Educational Progress exam results made public late last year.

Bobb’s bottom line conclusion: ”The time has passed for excuses, delays, partial steps and temporary solutions. The lives of tens of thousands of Detroit youths hang in the balance.”